De-Hoarding

Now that the dissertation is done, I feel like I can get back to everything I've been neglecting in my life, but where to start? I've been a grad student of one kind or another for ELEVEN years!

De-cluttering is one thing I've been longing to do. I haven't watched that show "Hoarders," even though several people have told me they're obsessed with it, partially because I watch too many bad reality shows as it is ("Teen Mom," "Jersey Shore"), and partially because I would probably wince at seeing my own traits in it. For example, you know how you should keep cardboard boxes "for a little while" to make sure you don't have to return the thing that came in it? In this way, over years, we accumulated a mountain of cardboard boxes and packaging in the basement. As mountains of trash tend to do, it accrued other kinds of junk to it as well:

Just recently, I actually hired movers for an hour to come take the mountain away, as well as move around or take away several pieces of extraneous furniture we had around the house. Now the basement looks a bit less alarming:

I hope this means you won't be seeing us on an episode of "Hoarders" anytime soon.